Red Herring Puppets to Perform

7/1/2013

Valley children and residents will have a chance to see the Red Herring Puppets of Asheville, North Carolina, in an award-winning (UNIMA Citation of Excellence) Aesop’s Fables production this summer at the conclusion of Massanutten Regional Library’s Summer Reading Games.

Aesop’s Fables may be over 2000 years old, but the Red Herring Puppets make these classic tales new again with their original rhyming version. This UNIMA Citation of Excellence is the highest honor in American Puppetry. This production, brought to the area by Massanutten Regional Library, is free and open to the public at six area locations July 29 and 30.

Full of music, animals and mischief makers, this puppet version is sure to delight audiences of all ages with the familiar stories of “The Lion and the Mouse,” “The Fox and the Crow,” “The Crow and the Pitcher,” “The Stork and the Fox,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The Owl and the Grasshopper.” These timeless stories are simple to understand and address topics relevant to school-age children such as bullying, selfishness, competition, ingenuity, and the affirmation that little beings can achieve great things.

Six shows will be presented to the area beginning in Page County Monday, July 29. Red Herring Puppets will be at Page Public Library, 10 AM, and Shenandoah Community Center (hosted by Shenandoah and Elkton Community Libraries) at 1 PM. The puppeteers will then travel to the Grottoes Branch Library for a show at 4 PM.

North River Library will host the puppetry show at the Bridgewater Community Center the following day, Tuesday, July 30, 10 AM. Village Library will welcome the group at the Broadway Community Center at 2 PM the same day, and the Main Library will present the Red Herring Puppets July 30, 6:30 PM in its Darrin Community Youth Center.

Red Herring Puppets is led by Artistic Director Lisa Aimee Sturz, who has built puppets and props for Disney Imagineering, Henson’s Creature Shop, Industrial Light and Magic, ABC, The Ice Capades, Biltmore Estate, Shedd Aquarium, Ft. Fisher Aquarium and the Field Museum of Chicago. Film and television credits include Muppets from Space, Elmo in Grouchland, Murphy Brown, The Flintstones, Fire in the Sky, Ninja Turtles III, Batman II, MuppetVision 3D, Captain Eo, RoboCop II, Howard the Duck, and the Academy Awards.